The 2014 State of Community Management Report is a resource on the current trends and the progressive health of online communities and how they help drive attainment of your business goals. With over 160 different online communities surveyed, it’s a wealth of information everyone should consider when attempting or implementing an online community strategy for their company.

It is the collaboration of The Community Roundtable that brings this relevant data to light. With the report in its 5th year, it is now possible to dig even deeper into the true value of online community and the strategies necessary for it’s growth. Here are 3 brief takeaways from the 2014 State of Community Management.

Business Strategy & Value in Community

An established strategy needs to be applied to properly measure community objectives and how they correlate with the business goals and its members' needs. Closing the gap between a business's vision and execution requires a properly planned and deployed road map.

Including:

Staffing full time community management

Integrating social tools and methods

Continuous evaluation and implementation

Community Managers Matter

Providing the proper resources and designating full time community management roles significantly increases the communities maturity rate. A community's maturity rate is defined by the business's ability to evaluate its current community strategy and identify the value & direction of it’s roadmap based on the data collected within the community.

Takeaways:

Communities with dedicated community managers are 2X as likely to successfully measure the value of the community to the business's goals.

Dedicated community management increases member engagement. Those with multi-tiered community leadership programs see 46% of members contributing in some capacity.

Advocacy Breeds Engagement

Identified as one of the most significant contributors to a community's engagement is providing leadership roles to its members. Taking the time to implement an advocacy program early on in the community will increase the amount of user-generated content, increase subject participation and help decrease the risk of ramifications from feature implementations.

Takeaways:

Empowering members increases community interaction and communication

Helps the overall community maturation

This is merely a short snippet of the extensive data and resources the 2014 State of Community Management Report has to offer. To learn more and understand the importance and the value that comes from building a community around your business, please follow the link below.

Inversoft helps brands build their online communities from concept to thriving. The company provides the platform technologies and services for an enterprise level online community including brand protectin from CleanSpeak, the fastest and most secure profanity filtering and moderation software. Inversoft works with some of the world's most recognized companies to build and protect their brands online including Disney, Activision, Pokemon and many more.